Origin: This proverb is a translation from "The Imitation of Christ" by the German-born Thomas à Kempis (c.1380-1471): "For the resolutions of the just depend rather on the grace of God than on their own wisdom; and in Him they always put their trust, whatever they take in hand. For man proposes, but God disposes; neither is the way of man in his own hands." This may be a reflection of a verse in the Bible (Proverbs 16:9): "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps." Shakespeare, too, had a similar message in Hamlet by Hamlet: "There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will."